Monday, August 11, 2008

As gas prices have started to quietly descend over the last couple of weeks, I wondered what must be the chatter be going about in “Greenie” blogs and websites? What are their assessments and their strategy regarding lowered gas prices? Environmentalists have always wanted higher gas prices--just like in Europe, they would say--usually through a higher gas tax. The theory being that higher gas prices would force the general public into mass transit or smaller fuel efficient cars. Thus, saving the environment from unwanted carbon dioxide and shepherding new investments in clean alternative energy. You must admit, there has been a lot of schadenfreude and hand wringing hoisted on those souls who drive around in those hated SUV’s. High gas prices must have really cockled the most inner environmentalist in every Liberal and Progressive. It must have felt so good to be morally vindicated.

But what happens when gas prices go up so fast that Americans struggle to make ends meet? And then the average American starts to figure out that they can not afford to have expensive energy for the sake of environmentalist goals. Leaving billions of gallons of crude oil sitting idle off our shores has all of a sudden started to seem unreasonable.

The Democrats’ reply to domestic drilling was the same as was heard many years before—“It will take decades to get oil from off shore drilling,” “It won’t matter much to current prices,” and there is the usual, “speculators are the cause of higher oil prices.” None of these straw man arguments have dissuaded the American public however.

This is a curious development. If the prices are low, we go back to consuming more gasoline. This means less incentive for clean alternatives and more pollution but perhaps less public outcry for more domestic drilling. Higher gas prices mean…well, you know.

It seems that environmentalists and their political enablers have positioned themselves into a nasty little corner. The illogical goals of obstructing the development of proven and reliable sources of energy--particularly when those energy prices are very high and may be high for some time now or in the future--just doesn't make sense to the average person. Environmentalists and Democrats seem to want Americans to live with higher prices because that moves them closer, in their estimation, to their stated goals of clean alternative energy. Even as those supposed alternatives are far, far from being a reality; probably farther than their claim that off shore drilling will take to make a difference. Their goal is going to be mighty expensive and Americans may not be interested in their utopia.

If gas prices continue to drop, look for a call to a higher gas tax in the name of developing alternative energy or to dissuade people from driving.

7 comments:

Despite their rhetoric and sophistry, the environ-fascists I think are still getting question by the majority of people. Those people that think "climate change" is a catastrophe waiting to happen come off as a bit chicken little. How unfortunate so many people believe them.

Great post VH. And amen to all that you've said and of your readers' before me. I hope that the gas prices are not going to get any higher than they are now. My family and I do feel the pinch of the high gas prices. I have to admit that our vehicles are all gas guzzlers, but all of them are over 7 years old and are all paid for. So it's not easy to just go buy some hybrids and start new car payments since we're not that independently wealthy.

"If the prices are low, we go back to consuming more gasoline. This means less incentive for clean alternatives and more pollution but perhaps less public outcry for more domestic drilling. Higher gas prices mean…well, you know."

And if freedom were more plentiful we could go back to paying more attention to useful pursuits, and spend less time -- the most valuable currency we have -- defending ourselves against control-hungry people.

At bottom, that is what it is all about -- freedom, not just the price of gas.